Parastenella Versluys, 1906

Cairns, Stephen D., 2018, Deep-Water Octocorals (Cnidaria, Anthozoa) from the Galapagos and Cocos Islands. Part 1: Suborder Calcaxonia, ZooKeys 729, pp. 1-46 : 18-19

Genus Parastenella Versluys, 1906

Stenella Wright and Studer 1889: 56 (junior homonym).

Stenella (Parastenella) Versluys 1906: 39, 45.

Parastenella Bayer 1961: 295; 1981: 936; Cairns 2007a: 245-247; 2007b: 518; Cairns and Bayer 2009: 45-46, figs 16 A–G; Cairns 2010: 434; 2016: 94-96.

Type species.

Stenella doderleini Wright and Studer, 1889, by subsequent designation ( Bayer 1956).

Diagnosis.

Colonies uniplanar to slightly bushy; branching lateral and somewhat irregular. Polyps stand perpendicular to branch, arranged independently or in pairs or whorls of up to four. Eight marginal scales present, offset in position from opercular scales; marginal, and sometimes submarginal, scales fluted; nematocyst pads present on distal inner surface of fluted marginals. Body wall scales arranged in four to eight longitudinal rows. Operculum well developed, the distal inner surface of operculars prominently keeled. Coenenchymal scales flat to highly concave, sometimes ridged. Pinnular rodlets sometimes present.

Distribution.

Cosmopolitan, except for eastern Atlantic, the Arctic, and off continental Antarctica, 475-3470 m depth.

Remarks.

Including the new species described herein, there are eight species known in this distinctive genus. Accounts of Parastenella species are found in Cairns (2007b, 2010, 2016) and Cairns and Bayer (2009).